Claims and Other Front of Package Information

Abstract

At present, nutrition labelling is not so effective in guiding consumer purchasing behaviour because many consumers prefer a simpler way providing nutrition information which can help them in assessing nutritional characteristics of a particular foodstuff quickly. In response to the obvious need to developing a more effective presentation of nutritional information, which should convey this information in a simplified and systematic manner, manufacturers and retailers from different countries have created some systems for signalling the nutritional profile. For nutritional information of the greatest interest to be easily perceived by consumers, they have used various schemes marked on the front side of individual packages—generically called Front of package (FoP). FoP schemes of nutrition information have an important role in food choices because they reduce cost related to efforts in looking for information about nutritional properties and health effects. Given the importance arising from FoP schemes, which include nutrition and health claims as well as graphical nutrition labelling, international legislators have tried to rule these ways to present nutrition information in order to assure consumers a higher level of protection. Although created in order to facilitate healthy food choices, the effect of these FoP systems on consumers is indeed controversial.